Does the heart bleed forever?
by Pyshcodelic-Pixie
Summary: Laurie finds out about Beths death. He then makes a choice about two other Miss Marches. Who wins his heart, and did he make the right decision? JoLaurie slightly AmyLaurie
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Firstly, I've only ever seen the 1949 movie and the 1994 movie, so don't come after me with pitch-forks if this doesn't tie in with the book. Secondly, I might make up a few bits to make it up to my own ends and to 'try' and give the story a plot. Finally, a big thankyou to **literary freak **who gave me the guts to write this by posting her own story. So this is dedicated to her._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Little Women, any of the characters or either of the movies...I wish I owned Laurie though...sighs_

_This is going to be a multi-chapter piece. Please Review_

* * *

It was no use. No matter how much he tried to forget or how much he reminded himself of the pain she had cuased, Theodore Laurence just couldn't stop loving his dearest Jo. Even with all her tomboyish ways, and crazy ideas, he loved her. Christopher Colomubus! Even her brutal refusal of him almost a year ago showed her honestly and pureness of heart. But why did she have to refuse him? Jo March behaved for years like she loved him and then...

Laurie's thoughts were diverted when he read a certain letter. Beth was dead. Poor, sweet child. Laurie sent up a quick prayer for the girl who had always thought of others before herself. He suddenly jumped up and made the decision to rush and comfort Amy March, she would have nobody to be there for her. How she must be suffering.

* * *

Laurie saw Amy March pacing under a tree in the distance but was reluctant. His hand slipped inside his pocket and he felt for a letter he had received not long after that first, shocking one. Yet this one was more heart-renching then the last. When he first opened it he expected it to be from his Grandfather, or perhaps Brookes or Mr March, but when her read the opening, he didn't need to read any further.. _Dear Teddy, _She was back, and she knew of Beth's death. Was she there for the final...event. Or did she receive word in New York with only that damned idiot of a German to console her.

With that he strode briskly up to Amy and she galdy stepped into his embrace, resting her head on his chest. Laurie held her but he gazed forward with a face of stone.

"Oh Laurie! How I have missed you." Amy said a meloncholy voice. "I began to wonder if you'd ever return from 'acting honourably'" she said with a hint of a smile. Laurie's position didn't change. Amy then continued to babble on about something and nothing...mostly Fred Vaughn's insipid remarks, and Aunt March's rheumatism. Laurie then snapped his head towards her and fixed her with his steely as she laughed heartily about something. He then released her and backed up looking on in disbelief.

"How can you laugh at a time like this?" he said, shaking his head. "Beth's dead! and all you can do is laugh about Fred Vaughn or some other dandy's pathetic antics. HAve you no heart!" he screamed. It started raining. Shock came over Amy's face, and she clasped her hands to her mouth.

"Dead?" she said, her voice breaking. "Oh Laurie!" she wailed before walking up to him with her arms outstretched but he refused to meet her gaze. She held his face in her hands. "Dearest Laurie, the last word I received was that she had been taken to be once again, and was suffering another bouwt' of tiredness." She said. "And you...came all the way here to comfort me."She looked up at him. "Oh Laurie," she said once again, but Laurie didn't like her tone it was almost...seductive. She then leant in to kiss him but he turned his face away.

"Amy, no..." he whispered. Amy's hands dropped and she took a couple of steps back. Anger welling up inside of her.

"It's Jo isn't it, she wrote to you." she said almost viciously. "She wrote to you and as always, you're going to act the puppy and go crawling back." She waved her arms in the air helplessly.

"No." Laurie responded. Amy chocked out a laugh.

"No what Laurie? No, Jo didn't write to you or no you're not going back to America." She asked, rhetorically. Laurie looked at her with pain etched across his face.

"No I-"he looked down briefly."I don't have to answer to you Amy." he walked away but Amy chased after him and headed him off on the pathway. It started raining.

"But- but you said you loved me Laurie. If you can't answer to me then who do you answer to? Your Grandfather, that's not how I see it." She said earnestly, though she felt like mocking him and cajoling him.

"Jo-" he whispered, barely audibly. Amy frowned.

"Sorry but what-"

"I said I answer only to Jo!" he shouted, staring her in the eye. Amy turned away from him, to hide the pain she know felt. Unable to turn around she responded to him.

"You never stopped loving her did you?" her voice breaking as she said this. Laurie sighed.

"No, no I didn't. I love her Amy, nothing could ever change that." he saw her shaking, whether it was from the cold or something deeper, he could not tell so he laid a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Amy, don't let us argue any more. I- I do love you but-"

"-but it's because I'm Jo's sister isn't it?" she replied, he voice chocked back with tears. Lauried didn't need to reply so he walked away but before he got to far away he turned and said to her,

"The next ship for America leaves tonight at six. I've already booked tickets. Do not trouble yourself with anything save for packing. I'll send my carriage for you." With that he walked away, not looking back. If he had he would have seen Amy fall to her knees sobbing, being soaked through with rain.

* * *

Jo was sat in a window-seat chewing her nails, gazing worridly out the window towards the road. As Meg approached her, she sighed and laid a hand on her younger sister's should making the latter jump with fright.

"I'm sorry Jo, it's just that we need some bread made for tea and everyone's preoccupied except for you and Marmee's upstairs." She didn't need to tell Jo why Mrs March was upstairs. Jo nodded. Meg looked and her sympathetically. "I know it's hard Jo, but he will come-" Jo spun round and looked at Meg wide-eyed.

"Who will come?" she said a little to quickly thinking that ever-insightful Meg had guessed her secret.

"Why, your German Professor -from New York, the one you sent your manuscript to, of course." Jo sighed, relieved. "Why, you're not expecting anyone else to turn up, are you?" Meg asked inquisitavely.

"What? No of course not! Who would I be expecting at a time like this." She gestured to all the solomn faces in the room. Meg agreed.

"Oh I'm sorry Jo, It's just that I thought perhaps you had written to-" Jo interupted Meg before she could finish.

"Then think nothing." With that Meg nodded in defeat and backed away, returning to her children.

Jo stood up, and walked off to the kitchen, not bothering to excuse herself from the company. She shut the door firmly behind her and braced upself over then work surface and took deep breaths. She then looked towards the ingredients that were neatly stacked on the table and set to work immediately in taking out her frustration on the bread dough. She got flour and yeast nearly everywhere, and paused halfway through her baking, to tidy up slightly. Scraping the scattered flour into a rough pile. She then looked in the mirror to see that most of her hair had fallen out of it's chignon and was scattered about very messily. She sighed and wiped a tear from a cheek with her flour-covered hands leaving a mark. Yet she didn't care, she had no reason to be vane...anymore. She then looked down at her dress which was stained with flour and nearly every other thing imaginable. Jo brushed it off once or twice before returning to her bread-making.

She had surely beaten out all the air from the dough with her continuous kneeding, but it didn't matter. Meg knew she was hopeless when it came to cooking, actually she was hopeless when it came to anything...even her writing, and especially when it came to Laurie. She then chastised herself for thinking of him. She then grabbed the dough and shoved it in for baking. Suddenly she heard an uproar start from where all the others were, in the next room. Jo grunted, at least someones happy. Perhaps even Amy has returned from gallabanting around Europe.

As she was grumbling to herself, and feeling prodigiously sorry for herself, Jo heard the thunder growling away outside, which sooted her mood just perfectly. No doubt rain was coming from the heavens in torrents.

While she was bent right over, searching for something in one of the cupboards, a tall handsome young man let himself into the kitchen through the backdoor. He had a large bouquet of flowers in one hand and a solomn, but worried look on his face. When he saw Jo's predicament, he couldn't help but smile at her most unlady-like manner of rooting through a cupboard.

"I see you've managed to accumalate a least one dress without a singed area at the back." he said quietly, leaning against the door frame. Jo jumped up and spun around, her eyes eyed, and her mouth open.

"Te-Teddy?" she said full of disbelief, dropping the glass jug she held in hands, making it smash into tiny pieces everywhere with a tremendously loud noise.

"Jo." Laurie said coming out of the shadows, from where he was stood. He showed her the flowers. "I-I brought you flowers." he said sheepishly.

"Oh,"she coughed "um, thankyou, let me jsut get a vase for them." She turned around and grabbed Marmee's favourite one from the dresser and put it down on the table. As she was doing so Laurie rested a hand on the small of her back and leaned over to put the flowers in the vase. Jo could feel his body close to hers, and quivered and revelled in the sensation at the same time. Jo turned around and faced him.

It was the first chance, Laurie had got to study her face, and he was hurt to see the bags that had developed under her eyes and he did not fail to noticed her face had lost it's childish roundness. Yet, it did amuse him to see her hair all dishevelled and the flour on her nose. He brought up an ungloved hand to wipe it off. Hi eyes, fixed intently on her face.

Jo felt like cowering away, and her skin burned at his touch. He then took hold of her hands in his own larger ones and carressed them slowly. "I didn't mean it Teddy." Laurie looked at her questionangly. "I was- we were-"she dipped her head down before looking deep into his eyes. "Teddy...we were very young, and I- I don't know, I just wanted things to stay as they were. I did love you Teddy. I truly did but-"

"but you don't love me at all, anymore." he said, as his heart was ripping in two. he turned away and slammed his fist against the door frame. Jo shook her head frantically, tears streaming from her eyes.

"No I..." Jo laid a hand on his arm but he shrugged it away and stormed off outside, before Jo had chance to continue, outinto the thunderstorm. Jo just stood there, bedazzled before ripping off her apron and chasing after him.

Laurie had already dissapeared from sight, but Jo knew wear he had gone so she ran as fast as she could down the road, and through a field; becoming covered with mud, and soaking wet. After a short while she saw Laurie walking quickly infront of her. She screamed out after him. "Laurie!" Whether because the sound was muffled byt eh torrential rain or whether because he chose to ignor it she didn't know but he didn't stop or turn around. This made her quicken her pace, and she run faster then she ever had towards him. As she tried to clamber over a fence, in a soaking wet dressed she slipped and hurt her ankle. Jo resisted the urge to scream out and continued, at a greatly slower pace after him. Laurie was still clearly in her sight, nearing the bottom of a hill. Jo tried to go faster but she tripped on her torn dress and went careering off to ther side and fell down the steep and rocky part of the hill. She couldn't help but scream as loud as her lungs could as she plummeted down...

* * *

_Well I'll leave you guys on a bit of a cliffhanger there. I've got chapter two already written and I'll post it ASAP...well if I get some reviews. I don't care if you did or did not enjoy but I do appreciate reviews! I really think there should be a section dedicated to Little Women, and I hope more people write fics about it! I really enjoyed writing this and incase you hadn't already guessed, I'm a big Jo/Laurie shipper. I hope you enjoyed this...once again, please review:D_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Sorry I took so long to post this, I really don't know why, I had it written and all but had family invading so had no privacy in one's study...horrid family. LOL. Well I've tried to make this a little less dramatic and a bit more fluffy. I got a few messages asking if Amy was going to be depressed for the rest of the story, and the answer is no...I've always imagined her a bit of a cold person when she grew up so she gets over Laurie pretty easily as soon as she see's she's not going to get him back and some other rich man likes her. Now, I better stop revealing my whole story plot._

_DISCLAIMER: I didn't write it the original story or own the screenplay to the films. The plot line is mine and any 'OCs' belong to me._

_Yay! Reviewers! Mwah I love you._

AzRen:_ Glad you enjoyed it! I'm ashamed to say I haven't read the book yet, so visiting Amazon is in my agenda for this week. There are some other Little Women fanfic's on here, for example literaryfreak is the first one that comes to mind and I've added a few to favourites on my profile. Jo/Laurie...Hell Yeah!...Amy...needs bashing. lol. Hope you like this chapter just as much!_

literaryfreak:_ Of course! We need more Little Women fics out there! It's one of the greatest stories ever written (quoting English Critics here). You are NOT a lousy writer, and yeh I did get inspiration from you but as you've probably noticed a dreadful for not updating my fics! blushes wow, do I really write beautifully? Gosh. Don't let 'them upstairs' (the ffnet admin people) here you talking about multiple accounts...and for you...I'll update anyway...;D...And yeh, I intend to keep on writing...you guys keep me going._

ye.elfie: _As far as I can see I'm the only one with a multi-part Little Women one. Glad you liked it um, well here's chapter 2!_

Quirky Del:_ Yes, Amy is very cold, but I think it works well, don't worry though, she gets more -hyperactive-(again) as the sotry goes on...And I'm aiming for about ten chapters, (Is that alright with everyone?) Yeh, the line**"I see you've managed to accumalate a least one dress without a singed area at the back." **is my favourite aswell. Well you'll find the answer to you question further down the page. And I can't wait to read your own fic!_

_Everyone, give a big round of applause to Quirky Del, because she has put a ticket for our **very own Little Women section**! So Chapter two is dedicated to her. I think I'm setting a trend with all these dedications eh?_

_OMG, I just noticed the editing on the last chapter IS DREADFUL! I wrote it on WordPad so I gorgot ffnet doesn't keep the editing...So I will go through it now and correct it. Just so you know the parts the first part is when Laurie gets the letter about Beths death...then a few days or w/e later he joins Amy, but in the interval received another very important letter...then we go to Jo's point of view back in America...and that's where it ends...for now._

_BUT...on with the story!.. ENJOY please read & review_

* * *

Laurie was storming through the field with his fists clenched, muttering curses under his breath. He felt the wind and rain biting into his face. Tears were welling up in his eyes but he gritted his teeth and tried to blink them away, to no avail. Laurie could have sworn he head someone calling his name, but he persuaded himself that it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Besides who would be there. Nobody. He doubted but hoped at the same time, that Jo would. 

He was stomping through a particularly muddy patch with a vengeful force when he heard an almighty blood-curdling scream come pounding through the air. There was someone following him! Realisation came surging through Laurie. Jo had followed him, and now...

Without a moments hesitation, Laurie sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him towards towards Jo, well towards where his heart was pulling him. He couldn't know for sure whereabouts Jo was because of the wind swirling around in every direction. First he went one way, then another before rounding to almost the same direction he had come from.

Laurie had to skid to a hault lest he tumble over a steep precipice; which sat like a deep and painful gash in the rolling hillside. His eyed widened. Jo must have fallen down here, and it was his fault. He searched around his feet for any signs that this was where Jo had fallen, for he felt most definately that this was the place. He shouted out to her but got no reply, so carefully, Laurie climbed down; nearly slipping on one of the sharp protruding rocks.

Laurie looked round and round but couldn't see Jo anywhere, but then something caught his eye. It was a piece of material, that looked like it had been torn off a dress, and was caught on a stick, stuck in the ground. He rans towards it, and snatched it up quickly. Jo must have gone this way. So he carried on round the bend until, to his horror, he saw a figure slumped against a rock, which had blood on it. Laurie nearly threw up at the sight of it but in an instant he was at Jo's side. He gently turned her over to see that she was unconcious, and there was a big gash running down the length of her head.

Without hesitation he ripped off part of his expensive _Parisian_ shirt and dabbed at the wound, hoping that the blood made it looked worse then it actually was. He then noticed that though a little pale her face still had plenty of colour, so thank God she wasn't dead, yet.

"Jo," he whispered over and over whilst caressing her hands, to no avail. They remained in this position for some time for Laurie was hesitant to move Jo lest he do more injury. He couldn't tell for sure if she had any broken bones, but he did have suspicions about her left wrist, which was laying at a very awkward angle. Suddenly Laurie felt a chil run down his spine, and realised just how cold he was in the rain, so he raised his head from it's position on Jo's side, and looked around. He hadn't noticed how dark it had become.

Without a moment to loose, Laurie jumped to his feet and scooped Jo up into his arms. He then cursed whatever idiot thought up Crinolines as everyday where, for it was making his task of carrying Jo harder. Also, to his alarm, Laurie noticed Jo was a lot lighter then she used to be. Through, the mud, and slippery grass he run, back towards the March's house. He could barely see ten foot infront of him, what with the heavy sheets of rain and the hidden sun setting. Night was most definately drawing in quickly. Every now and then Laurie would glance over his shoulder and up above him just to see where the thunder was striking down. As soon as he reached the front door, he found that he couldn't knock because his arms were, obviously, full. He then considered slamming his head against it but decided it would do nobody any good to have two unconcious wards. So, however ungentleman-like it was, he threw himself against to old wooden door, forcing it to burst open...

* * *

_Quite a short chapter there. I found it didn't quite 'fit in' with the other parts then originally went with it, so the rest is in chapter three which I'll post later...if I get at least one review. Later meaning today._

Didyou noticed chapter one is now edited?

_Hope you enjoyed it...a bit of tension...but in the next chapter Jo throws a vase! And more Amy-bashing, of course! _

_Love Liz, xx _

_Please review!_


End file.
